A conference on UNIX and Open Systems for the Canberra Region brought to you by the Canberra Chapter of AUUG Inc.
The Conference was held on Friday 12th February at the Australian National University, starting at 9am. Registration is in the Manning Clark Foyer (building 26a), commencing at 8.30am, with the conference sessions being held in Manning Clarke Theatre 3. Lunch, morning and afternoon refreshments are provided.
| Time Slot | Speaker | Topic |
| 8:30 - 9:00 | Committee | Registration (Foyer) |
| 9:00 - 9:05 | Peter Wishart | Welcome and Introduction |
| 9:05 - 9:45 | Steve Ball | The eXtensible Markup Language and Friends |
| 9:45 - 10:25 | Peter Wishart | DNEWS - sucking is better than pushing |
| 10:25 - 10:50 | MORNING TEA | |
| 10:50 - 11:30 | Sam Lor | The Effect and Handling of Recent Security Incidents |
| 11:30 - 12:10 | Tony Shepherd | Security Issues in Large Corporations |
| 12:10 - 12:50 | Stephen Rothwell | Building Linux Firewalls |
| 12:50 - 2:00 | LUNCH | |
| 2:00 - 2:40 | Richard Keech | Linux and Open Source |
| 2:40 - 3:20 | Bruce Smith | Microsoft Windows NT Services for UNIX |
| 3:20 - 3:50 | AFTERNOON TEA | |
| 3:50 - 4:30 | Jan Newmarch | Some Uses of Advanced Java Techniques |
| 4:30 - 5:10 | Warren Toomey | Saving UNIX from /dev/null |
| 5:10 - 5:15 | Lawrie Brown | Conference Close |
XML spans the dividing line between the flexibility of SGML and the simplicity, and popularity, of HTML. The basic syntax provided by XML is now being put to use in many applications and protocols, not just for World Wide Web documents. This paper will give a brief overview of XML, along with a roadmap of related specifications such as XSL, DOM, XLL, Xpointer and layered protocols such as RDF, CML and PGML.
Linux keeps exceeding expectations. Where will it stop? This paper examines the emergence of Linux as a viable and respected platform for enterprise computing. It also highlights the impact of the Open Source movement and looks at what is likely in the near future. The paper will also present findings of testing, comparing the performance of Windows NT with Linux.
This talk presents recent trends and reviews major security incidents in Australia as seen by AusCERT in the past year including the discovery of vulnerabilities in popular server software, the increasing frequency of widespread scanning and the emergence of exploits for desktop clients and their application software. It covers both Unix and Windows operating systems, and gives some insight into how to better secure these systems in light of the current attacking methods and how to respond to security incidents. AusCERT initiatives for improving services will also be reviewed.
The Australian Computer Emergency Response Team, AusCERT, provides a single trusted point of contact in Australia for the Internet community to deal with computer security incidents and their prevention. AusCERT aims to reduce the probablility of successful attacks, to reduce the direct costs of security to organisations and to minimise the risk of damage caused by successful attacks.
In addition to "standard" programming constructs, Java also has a number of more advanced mechanisms such as native code interface and reflection. This paper discusses how these can be used in three projects: implementation of POSIX system calls in Java, adding contracts to Java, and testing of Java applications using JACL.
With the advent of Linux, the creation of appropriate and cost effective protection from the ravages of the Internet are within the grasp of even small organisations. The talk will discuss the inbuilt features of Linux that lend themselves to use on a firewall and also some of the available useful add on applications and toolkits.
Microsoft is broadening its interoperability product offering to include Microsoft Windows NT Services for UNIX Add-On Pack, an integrated suite of utilities designed to ease integration of existing UNIX environments with Windows NT Server and Windows NT Workstation. Windows NT Services for UNIX provides the core interoperability components that customers have most frequently requested, including resource sharing, administration, and security features.
Maintaining security in a large organisation is never a simple task. Even with commitment from all levels of the organisation combined with good processes, documentation and education, there is always those issues which fall outside the boundaries. This talk will present some of those requirements that are essential to maintaining and dealing with security problems within a large organisation. It will also discuss how security and business directions are often in conflict and how this can influence the overall security direction an organisation takes.
UNIX has been, and continues to be, a very influential operating system. Future computing historians will want to look back at the development of UNIX to trace its effects on the computing industry.
This paper reviews the efforts being undertaken to preserve old versions of UNIX (both source and binaries), to gather the information required to maintain systems running these versions of UNIX, and the progress that has been achieved in providing legal access to old UNIX source by individuals.
DNEWS is a system for distribution of Usenet news. It offers an alternative to the more widely used INN and CNEWS on Unix systems. DNEWS runs on an increasing variety of Unix platforms and and Windows NT. It supports an on demand (or "sucking") mechanism for news distribution which can be very efficient for small to medium newsfeeds. This talk will describe the features of DNEWS and look at some of the benefits and pitfalls of the DNEWS approach. We will also look at some of the features in DNEWS aimed at reducing the amount of spam in newsgroups and techniques for supporting more efficient storage and access to the ever increasing volumes of Usenet news.